Protens
by Elpriede
Summary: What happens when you throw kids with superpowers and school together? You get Protens Academy; where each and every student are fighting to beat the rest into the ground to reach the top. It's the typical experience for everyone. But what happens when two brothers come with the power, and will, to beat the competition? Only time will tell. (I'm bad at summaries.)


**Authors Note:**

 **Yo, this thing is only the first chapter and it took fucking ages to do. About 7-8 hours of pure editing straight (that's 10 PM to 6 AM people!), and I have to give HUGE thanks to my two buds down below. They preread everything and helped me edit it. Without them, this wouldn't have been possible at all (or at least not in the state it's in now). They're awesome, amazing, and all kinds of other adjectives. You should especially check out Purpurapaw. She does drawings mostly (primarily of cats and fan characters of the Warriors series, but who doesn't like cats?) but sometimes she writes a story. She's awesome, check her out. They also left their own notes down below. Leave any thoughts or comments down, though if they try to murder you for pointing out a flaw, it isn't my fault. I hope you like this chapter, I will be beginning chapter 2 very soon! I'll be leaving links to both their DA and (if they have it) FF accounts. Also, in advance, I apologize for the lack of consistent writing. We worked on different sections, and the introduction actually got the most attention out of everything else. Everything was a bit unorganized, it was our first time doing something like this, and I know for a fact that we'll get better at this as time progresses. We'll be working hard to be better next chapter in every aspect. Those two are badasses for helping me.**

 **Happy reading, guys and gals, and anything else out there!**

 **I need sleep...**

 **Purpurapaw's DeviantArt:**

 **Iang's : u/3919669/Mr-Biggy**

 **Editor #1: ( )(Iang) Note** : **I helped Dark with the editing of his story so he could improve his writing capabilities further. It did take quite awhile to make, and we were rather nitpicky about shit, so don't judge too harshly, and if you have criticisms, do make it constructive. I look forward to helping him out in the next one. I think I'm supposed to tell you to have fun reading.** **(Have fun reading!)** **(I need sleep. q-q)**

 **Editor #2: Purplepaw's** **(Purpurapaw)** **Note: I assisted in editing the story with my two buddies, Iang and Dark. Dark was very imaginative in this story, I was thoroughly impressed how he was able to effectively transfer his original ideas of the Nephelem into a High School-like setting. Iang had an eagle's eye when it came to editing and finding incomplete or sentences that weren't efficient enough to make the cut in the final copy.** **I know I sound like a total tool, shut up lol** **. (Iang made a bunch of** **spooky skeleton** **memes, some were… Different. I'm really drained right now, you have no idea.) Regardless,** **have fun reading!**

Heavy snow fell from the skies upon the small town of Nepherite, fierce winds distributing the laden snow across the fields and depositing in an even white blanket. Winter had wrapped it's cold fingers around the land, and had it in a vice grip. The streets were eerily silent, save for the

howling wind caused by the horrid weather.

Through the rough blizzard; however, a yellow school bus had somehow driven along the icy roads, slow and steady, managing to make it to it's destination. The yellow school bus's wheels slipped on the icy road, coming to a screeching halt in front of the gates of Protens Academy. The air sundered the building, dispersing the snowflakes into opposing directions. The chill seemed to bite at any uncovered skin, causing blood to pump at an increased rate to the center of anyone's chest, in hopes that the heart will still be warm enough to beat. The tree's branches extended, swaying like grasping hands, were left bare except for the thin ice that desperately clung to it. A single, poorly lit (and not to mention poorly maintained) road was the only thing separating Nepherite and the outside world.

A young boy stepped out of the bus onto the frozen sidewalk, though strangely being able to maintain perfect balance on it. Secil's long brown hair was tossed around in the biting wind, forcing him to raise his hand up to protect his face. He was no more than 4 and a half feet tall and donned a blank expression. He wore an open, dark gray jacket, plain blue shirt, dark blue battered jeans in desperate need of repair, and black converses. To say he dressed lightly in the blistering cold weather was an understatement. He paused and took in a deep breath, the crisp air refreshing to his lungs. He had always had liked the cold, much to everyone else's wonder. The colder it got, the more he loved it, and the stronger he felt. He hated the summer; it was too hot, and he always felt he was going to melt like an ice cube. He found himself desperately next to the air conditioner most days so he didn't burn alive.

Secil stepped to the left so he wasn't blocking the entrance of the school bus. He waited patiently for his older brother to step out, taking small amusement in the cringing reactions of the other boys and girls on the bus, and chuckling softly as they slipped on the ice. Eventually, a similar boy but with short, spiky brown hair came out, also struggling to keep his balance. He wore a heavy winter jacket, a clean pair of jeans, and red sneakers. Zev glanced at his brother, Secil, for a moment. His red eyes were curiosity as he gazed at the large metal gates they were taken to. Secil looked at the ground, scuffing some of the snow and ice that was on the sidewalk while the rest of the kids filed out of the bus. Zev stood next to his twin, watching them with narrowed eyes. It was almost a requirement that he kept himself at a cool temperature.

"Why are we here?" Secil asked quietly after a while. He didn't want to be here, even if he liked the cold. He wanted to be back home with mom. It was almost impossible to hear him above the loud wind and his own quiet voice. "I want to go home."

"We are home. Mom isn't here anymore." Zev responded equally quietly, his sharp red eyes glaring at everyone around him, save for his little brother Secil.

"I know," Secil looked up at the rest of the kids. He could tell he was the only one dressed lightly. He didn't understand it, but the cold never bothered him like others. He always felt good in the winter. As far back as he could remember he never slipped on any ice either, which he saw was common with others. He looked at Zev, almost pleading. "I don't want to be here."

He sighed. "We don't have a choice." He opened his mouth to say more but that's when the large metal gates opened and out came a man in a gray suit. His eyes were gray, much like his suit, and stone cold. His face locked into a permanent scowl, showing the wrinkles his scarred face carried. Instinctively, Zev took his little brother's hand and held him close, not taking his eyes off the older man. He had learned not to trust anyone, especially adults like what he was seeing now.

The suited man cleared his throat as the bus closed it's door and drove away. "Welcome, boys and girls, to Protens Academy. I am Mr. Aguinaga, and this will be your home from now on, until you graduate. Follow me." He turned around and began to walk away. The brief introduction left most of the little boys and girls more confused than before, but they followed. Secil and Zev stood close to each other, while the older took the lead. He stayed well away from the rest of the group. He remembered his mother's words clearly still. 'Don't trust anybody except yourself and your brother.' just before she died. He wasn't sure why, but he followed his mother's final wish, deciding to be skeptical of everyone. He felt a sting of pain in his heart from the memory and shook it away. He didn't have time for remembering the past, nor the patience it required to do so.

Secil, however, was feeling very different. When his mother had first died, it had completely destroyed him. He locked himself in a room for hours on end to be alone. But that was several months ago when he was an orphanage, now he was all but over it. He took to distracting himself by looking at the snow covered ground and the tall buildings with long icicles forming on the edges of the roof. Through the haze of heavily falling snow he could see the faces of many people through the windows of the buildings. All of them were looking at him, some laughing while others didn't seem to be doing anything but just watching. Secil was disturbed by the amount, and that they seemed to be all looking at him. He huddled close to his brother's side.

Eventually, they made it to a tall building. The front of the building was made out blue, red, and yellow stained glass to form a picture. To him, it looked like a hazmat symbol with a huge calligraphic 'P' put overtop it. On second glance, it actually was. When they entered the building, it was equally as lavish: Long walls stretching many yards in front of them lined with more mosaic tile pictures, each one, he could tell, was an element. On the right wall; Fire, made out of red and orange tiles to creates blazing bonfire, highlighted by the white marble. Water, generated from different shades of blue to form a tidal wave of an ocean. On the left wall; Earth, using a combination of browns and greens to fabricate a rich forest landscape. And air, depicted as a light amalgam of blue and whites, coalescing into a devastating tornado.

The floor was made of a shiny white marble, with a large black circle in the center of the room,

contrasting greatly with the white. In the middle black circle was a similarly circular wooden desk. A man in a black police uniform sat behind it, only glancing at them briefly before going back to staring at a large computer screen with his feet propped up on the desk. All along the walls were many white cushioned chairs and long couches. Potted plants were distributed about; one small plant on on a tiny glass table every 5 chairs. One on the security guard's desk behind him. When he looked up, there were several more floors lined with white railing above him in the shape of an oval, open in the center. An elevator near the end of the room on the ground floor told him one way of getting up, the other a orange marble staircase bending around with the similar white railing.

Mr. Aguinaga stopped and turned around to address them in front of the security desk. "This is Protens Academy. You'll be here for the rest of your academic curriculum, until you decide to go on to college." Mr. Aguinaga paused for a moment before continuing."You will wait in this room until you are called. You will come up the stairs with me. I will get you acquainted with the school and set you up with us." Everyone nodded. Mr. Aguinaga grunted. "When I call your name, come up." he looked down at the paper in his hand. "Aaron Striker." He read off from it. Secil stared in confusion. _Where did he get the paper from when he wasn't holding one before?_ A tall white boy came from the crowd and approached, and then both ascended the stairs behind the security desk to the next floor.

It was a long wait for students to be called up. Kids began to slowly wander around the room, making small conversations with one another. Secil and Zev made their way to a corner of the room and sat down to watch the others. They said nothing to each other-what would they say anyways, talk about being in a strange place with strange people they didn't know? The conversation like that struck them both as pointless. They knew where they were, why they were there. Their mother had always told both of them they were different. Not normal. She alluded it to the red mark around their eyes. Secil tried to remember what she called it, a True Blood Mark? He had always been curious what it was but she would never explain it.

Secil was too deep in thought to notice a girl had walked up to them. Zev looked up at her to glare savagely. "What do you want?" He asked coldly. This brought Secil out of his thoughts to peer up at her. Obviously, it appeared as if she had already been called. She was in a weird uniform: White blouse; a sleeveless blue, yellow, and red sweater; red skirt, complete with white stockings. Secil could swear he saw that outfit somewhere before. He noticed her striking blue eyes then, mostly because of how similar they were to his own. Her curly black hair was similar to his mother's. She didn't seem to go out in the sun much because her skin was pale as well, not nearly as much as his own though.

She didn't seem to care much for Zev's unfriendly attitude. "You two seemed lonely." She shrugged nonchalantly, sitting down next to Secil. The pale boy stared curiously at her. She seemed friendly enough to him, plus he thought it would be kind of nice to have some friends. He couldn't just talk to Zev for the entire time he was here.

"Hi," Secil murmured, looking away from her. "I'm Secil Elprede." His voice was hoarse. He didn't talk a lot, that much was obvious from the way he was acting. It didn't help he had a dry throat either.

"I'm Sehrli." She stopped, thinking it over. "Er, Ashley Sehrli Jordan is my name. You can just call me Sehrli though."

Zev grunted, looking forward to watch the rest of the others in the large room. "Zevrael Sturar. Call me Sturar." He said in a growl.

She nodded at the both of them. "It's nice to meet you two-" she got cut off by the old man's booming voice.

"Secil Elprede!" He yelled. Said boy froze up, petrified on the spot. Zev nudged him after a few seconds, getting up and easily lulling brother up with him.

"You have to go," he said. "I'll be right here."

Secil sighed and nodded. He made his way through the crowd to the stairs and went up them quickly to the man that called him. The second floor was similar to the first one with the same white marble flooring, however the walls now were simply a random pattern of red, orange, blue, white, yellow, and brown. They passed several oak wood doors until they entered one with flat brown carpet floor and plain white painted walls. The man went

"What's your birthday?" He asked curtly.

"December 1, 1997." Secil answered shakily. Mr. Aguinaga nodded his head, scribbling it down on the paper.

"Do you have a cell phone?" Secil nodded, glancing down at the small bulge in his front pocket. "What's your phone number?"

"Uh…" be took a few seconds to remember. "762-845-7022."

"Mother's number?"

"762-954-1083."

It continued like that. The man would ask questions, Secil would answer, and he would write something down on the paper. Secil began to get bored of the stuffy office fairly quickly. It was interesting when he first walked in, but now he didn't think much of it. White walls, brown oak wood furniture. It was typical of most places, he realized-it was similar to his old school back where he came from. He found he couldn't remember. Why couldn't he remember? He remembered everything. Mr. Aguinaga went into the back room for a few moments, coming back with a set of folded clothes that he handed to Secil. A uniform, Secil noted, similar to what Sehrli was wearing. The sweater was sleeveless. It was cross-cut diagonally with blue on one side and red on the other with yellow bordering everything. It was accompanied by black khaki pants and a white dress shirt.

"That is your school uniform. You're expected to wear it when school is in session-all day, every day. Understood?" Secil nodded at him. Mr. Aguinaga gave him a plastic card attached to a lanyard. "That's your ID. You're expected to wear that all day, every day. You will not be allowed into the building or into your classes without it. Now go into the back room and get changed. There's a booth in the back." he pointed to where be had gotten the clothes from, "and get changed into your uniform. There's a changing room with a curtain at the back of it."

Secil did as he was told and entered the room. It was identical to the previous room. There were few differences, one being there was a large window spanning all along the far wall. A huge set of shelves are placed in the middle of the room, each open space of the shelves was filled with a pair of pants, a shirt, and a sweater. On the top it was marked 'BOYS', with each different cubbyhole tagged with a different size. Another shelf of the same kind was on the other side of it when he looked, and he could tell it was simply the girl's section of it. Mostly because it was labeled 'GIRLS' as well.

So once he had gotten his new trousers on and his shirt and sweater, he tucked them in under the waistband of his pants, leaving a little bit of room to at least move around. He found a belt and put that on as well, looking at himself in the full body mirror in the room. It was the first time he looked at himself in a long time-his eyes changing colors constantly, his pale white skin, his ragged, long brown hair. His eyes were red from the crying he had done several hours before he had arrived still. Figuring he was done, he went out to Mr. Aguinaga.

The man nodded in approval. "School uniform looks good on you, boy. You just need a haircut and a bit of sun and you would be perfect." He launched into a brief summary of the rules of the building before point Secil to the door. "You may leave now." Secil left immediately, he wanted to get back to his brother by that point. Mr. Aguinaga following to presumably call for the next contender. Secil made his way back to his brother as he stood up, and Sehrli did as well. Secil was a little surprised to see that she was still there. He figured Zev would have scared her away by now.

"At least you aren't in rags anymore," Zev said approvingly, poking his brother's new clothing. "All you need is a shower now." He teased. Secil eyes widened and he smelled himself. Sehrli rolled her eyes.

"I don't smell that bad…" Secil mumbled.

Zev chuckled, patting Secil's shoulder. "I was just kidding. You're fine." Secil playfully socked Zev before sitting down on the floor, leaning his back against the wall. Zev and Sehrli sat down as well on opposite sides of him.

"Well, I like the uniforms." Sehrli stated. "They actually look decent, despite the weird color combination. I do like the gold trim." She looked at her skirt, giving it the stink eye. "These skirts could use some work though. I can't believe they're making us wear something this short. It's embarrassing."

Zev glanced at the sweater again. "Blue isn't really my thing." He stated, putting his arms behind his head. He glanced at Sehrli, taking in her outfit. "The perverts of this school are going to love those skirts though." he stated in a matter-of-fact tone.

Secil shrugged. "I like the blue and red," he said quietly, looking down at his new, and rather warm, clothing. It made him uncomfortable in a way, but he would have to just deal with it.

"What does 'pervert' mean?" Secil asked. Zev looked alarmed- he had forgot his brother was only ten, as he acted quite mature for his age.

"Uh… it's another word for calling someone mean."

"That isn't very nice." Secil said.

"The world isn't very nice." Zev responded.

"Don't scare him," Sehrli interjected.

They all fell silent. Secil broke into a fit of giggles, which slowly infected Zev and Sehrli as they began laughing as well after he did.

Secil was the first to recover. He looked up to see Mr. Aguinaga had come back. "Zev Sturar!" he yelled. Zev got up from the ground and walked over to him without a word, heading up the stairs to Mr. Aguinaga's office.Secil had watched them go the entire way until he couldn't see them anymore. He kept staring at the point where Zev had left his line of sight until Sehrli spoke.

"You two are really close, huh?"

"Huh?" Secil said, his voice tiny compared to her own still. He nodded his head at her. She looked at the office.

"That's good, it's nice to have siblings around." She looked down at the ground, a sad expression coming over her face. "My sister went here. She's a lot older than me. She graduated when I started going here." Secil was confused as to why she suddenly was bringing it up as soon as his brother had left. He leaned over to poke her shoulder, prompting Sehrli to look up at him.

He gave a small smile for her. "You have friends now," he said hoarsely. Oh how he wished he had some water. "Sturar is just a hard head." He joked lightly.

She took a few moments to replay what she said in her head before nodding at him, offering her own smile in return. "Thank you, Secil."

He nodded at her, looking back up at the stairs. Zev was coming down the steps, dressed in his own uniform. When he approached them, Zev looked down at his uniform, running his hands over his clothing to clear it to clear the wrinkles. "Well, it feels kind of weird to wear something like this. And I'm not very fond of these pants either." He pinched his trousers in-between his thumb and index finger. "Do you think they'll allow me to wear jeans instead?" Secil shrugged at him. He looked at Sehrli.

"Don't look at me, I don't know. It's still ridiculous we have to wear skirts that aren't even at finger length." She grumbled. "That's what you get for going to private institutions I suppose."

Both boys were even more confused. "What's a 'private institution'?" They asked at the same time, although Secil's quiet voice was completely drowned out by Zev's louder one.

Sehrli sighed. "Basically a place kids go when their parents are rich." She explained shortly.

Zev looked skeptical then, but sat down beside his brother. "Hm, I don't remember our mother being particularly wealthy…"

She blinked, glancing at the two of them as it dawned on her. "... You also come here if your parents died and you have powers." She said in barely a whisper. They stiffened up, and Zev's face twisted into a scowl once more. "I'm sorry."

Zev shook his head. "We're over it. We've been on our own for months."

Secil, however, was a little more inquisitive. He didn't stay focused on what Sehrli said. With every answer he just had more questions, and it was in his nature to find them. "Powers?" He asked. "Like a superhero?"

Sehrli nodded. "Yeah… We're all here because we don't exactly belong anywhere else. Our powers are kind of varying." She stopped for a moment. "I have Magic."

Zev rolled his eyes then. "Magic doesn't exist," he said grumpily. He couldn't deny having powers though, the mark on his face around his right eye was proof of that. He reached up to lightly brush his fingers over it. The red blood splatter glowed softly underneath his touch. When he removed his fingers from it, the little splotch returned to looking like an old, unwashed part of his face.

"Yes it does." She closes her eyes to concentrate, and snapped her fingers. A small tube of toothpaste appeared in her hand then in a brilliant spectacle of lavender light. "I only know how to summon things though," she muttered. She held onto the item, placing it in her lap. She noticed the glow of Zev's mark then. "That's curious… I've never seen a mark like that before."

He glanced at her. "What's that?"

She pointed at his eye. "The glowing blood around your eye. What is that?"

"Oh." He ran his fingers over it again, and it glowed to his touch once more. He considered not telling her about it, but thought it wouldn't do any harm. Unless she touched it anyways, he didn't want a replay of that. "We were born with it. My own is a little more sensitive than Secil's though. I think mom called it a 'True Blood Mark'... Whatever that means."

Sehrli appeared even more curious now, sliding over so she could look directly at Zev. He shifted uncomfortably under her scrutinizing gaze, glaring straight at her but said nothing to her. The girl was too close to him already, he liked his personal space very much. The only problem was everyone in the known universe was dead set on invading it. Just as soon as he was about to say something, she beat him too it.

"Does it always glow like that?" She asked as it began glowing brighter, enough so that even Zev could see it.

"No," he said quickly, turning to Secil. "Elprede!" He yelled.

Secil looked utterly bewildered. Until he saw Zev's own mark glowing. Sighing in exasperation, he reached out a hand and placed a finger onto Zev's mark. It glowed brighter than, almost blinding, electricity sparking along it. Suddenly it completely stopped glowing in a flash, a thin aura of red surrounding Zev for a moment, sweeping down his body and transferring to Secil, running up into his own mark. It sparked like electricity, glowing as well before going back to looking like an unwashed bit of blood on his face. A strange, tingling sensation remained within their respective marks. Secil withdrew his hand from Zev's person, running the finger with his thumb to try and get feeling back into his numbed finger.

"You know you're not supposed to touch it, Sturar," Secil scolded him. Zev slumped against the wall a little bit, appearing a lot more tired than he was before.

Zev scoffed. "I forgot." He turned to face forward, seeing a stricken Sehrli. "What?"

She took a while to formulate a response. "That… was really cool… plus magical. I could feel it within my bones, the amount of magic it was releasing."

He looked annoyed. "Yeah, great. I know I'm weird. Can we leave it alone now? I'm tired from that."

She nodded slowly, sitting next down next to Secil again. "Uh, y-yeah." She muttered. She looked to her right to see a wide-eyed Secil. "What is it?" He pointed, her eyes following it to see many of the other students staring at them. Some with contempt, some in fright, others in interest.

Zev growled. "What, do you all have a problem or something?" He yelled. Slowly, they all began to go back to their own groups. He was aware some of them kept looking, but he didn't care. He crossed his arms over his chest just as a loud whistle sounded, startling most of the students in the room. Secil and Zev had no reaction at all while Sehrli gasped quietly. They all looked towards the stairs to see Mr. Aguinaga standing at the foot of the steps, looking grumpy..

Mr. Aguinaga put the whistle away. "Now that I have your attention… I want everybody to split up into two groups. Girls on the left side of the room, boys on the right side. Go!"

Everybody began to quickly split up into their groups. Secil paused. "Bye," he mumbled before leaving. Zev didn't say anything to her, walking away without a sound. They both stayed away from the rest of the crowd still, though Secil wandered away from Zev every now and then only for him to get pulled back by his older brother. Zev could swear sometimes he just turned into a complete airhead when he wasn't doing anything and was standing up at the same time.

"Good. Mrs. Richard will lead the girls to their dorm, I will lead the boys to their own. Boys, follow me!" Mr. Aguinaga barked, walking past the students quickly, moving down a hallway before going out one of the exits. Everybody followed at a leisurely pace., breaking up into their groups like before. Secil and Zev didn't say anything as they left out of the building back into the cold. They trudged along for only a minute or two before they entered another building, the outside of it strangely painted blue. It was gigantic, appearing like a super hotel. It was huge, and appeared old. The interior was carpeted with polkadot pattern with plain white painted walls. _Juvenile. This looks like it belongs in a preschool._ Secil thought. They stopped in the middle of the hallway. and Mr. Aguinaga turned to them.

"You each have been assigned to a room. On my left is the list. 100s are on this floor, 200s on the second, 300s on the first, and 400s on the fifth. All of your belongings have already been transferred to your rooms. If you do not have yours, come talk to me. Understood?" Everyone nodded. "Good. Sleep well, you'll have a busy day tomorrow." Mr. Aguinaga turned around and walked down the hallway, leaving them to their own devices. Everybody began to make their way towards the list. Several of the larger students simply shoved everyone else out of the way to get to the front, while many of the smaller students held back to avoid being trampled and waited for everyone to clear away. When the crowd had thinned out, Secil and Zev approached the board to find their own names. _Room 310, that must be the third floor._ With such an amazing deduction of the room's whereabouts, and checking with Zev, they headed in their own directions.

It didn't take long for him to find his room. It only required a short climb up a few flights of stairs and walking down another long hallway. With the length of the building, he figured it each room must be at least apartment sized. _What's the difference between a dormitory and apartment anyways?_ He asked himself. He didn't know the answer to his question. When he found the door and opened it, he yelled as he was immediately tackled to the floor by a large bundle of fur. The next thing Secil knew, his face was being completely covered by something wet. Whatever tackled him was licking him. When he could open his eyes for a second, he recognized the animal immediately.

"Fenris!" He exclaimed happily, hugging the fluffy white husky to his chest as the dog nuzzled him affectionately. "I didn't think I would find you here with me!"

"Oh, so he's your dog?" A voice inquired. Secil looked past his squirming dog to see a tall Asian boy, who looked down at him with an amused expression.

"He didn't cause you any problems, did he?" Secil queried quietly, having to fight with his dog before he could get backon his feet. When he finally did, Fenris just sat down next to his feet, panting and wagging his tail happily.

"Oh, no," the boy reassured. "By the way, my name is Jacques Takumi. What's yours?"

Secil tentatively held his hand out to the boy, who in turn shook it. "Secil Elprede. It's nice to meet you."

"To you as well," Jacques said with a smile. "Come on in, roomie. We've got stuff to sort out." He turned and walked into the apartment-esque dorm, calling for Fenris to follow. The young husky did so obediently, immediately jumping up onto a couch centered in the middle of the room.

Secil was a little bit in awe of everything inside of the room. It was lavishly furnished. The walls were painted a yellow gold, and had a smooth white carpet. There was a small brown leather couch, a flat screen TV, and a bookshelf against the rear wall. Mahogany cabinets hung on the opposing wall with a counter underneath. On the countertop was a stainless steel microwave and matching mini fridge. Several windows lined the walls, allowing an outside view of the winter environment. Secil's previous school, the only one he had ever been to before now, was so underfunded that it couldn't afford to supply all its students with basic classroom textbooks. He wondered where all the money came from for these luxuries. He probably would never know.

A hallway extended from the living room, with two bedrooms parallel to each other. Both rooms were large to Secil, his own had only been large enough for a bed and maybe a desk at most. They were painted differently; the right room had red walls, while the left were blue. They both had one bed, a nightstand with a bedside lamp and a digital clock, and a desk with a small laptop and school planner. After a small discussion with Jacques, they came to a mutual agreement. Secil would get the right room, and Jacques would get the left one.

Secil wasn't feeling like talking much after that, so he just went into his room and laid down on his bed, turning on the lamp to illuminate the room. Secil heard the clicking of his dog's claws on the floor as he followed the boy inside and leapt onto the bed with him. Secil reached out unconsciously and began petting the dog, running his fingers through Fenris's soft fur as the dog laid down beside him. He wondered what his brother was doing, and if he had a nice roommate like he did. He glanced over to his left to check the time. It read '10:41 PM' in large red writing. The fatigue of the day hit him, and he decided it was about as good time as any. He ushered Fenris off the bed so he could get under the covers, making room so Fenris could climb back up onto the bed when he was comfortable. He leaned over to click the lamp off but remained awake for a few minutes longer, replaying the day's events in his mind before closing his eyes and succumbing to sleep.


End file.
